With unemployment at its highest point in the past 30 years, it’s more important than ever for your resume to stand out from the pack. But what if your resume is holding you back?
Here are five quick fixes that you can make today to make sure that your resume conveys the best picture of your professional capabilities:
1. Details, details, details: Add a short description for each of the previous employers on your resume – what the company is, what they do, and why it’s important. Is your previous employer a leader in the industry? Have they won any recent awards? Anything you can do to give some context to the person reviewing your resume will be helpful – and it’s also good to sound gracious and complimentary about your past employers. If your resume can deliver a concise and appealing profile of your past employers, that will also show your prospective employers that you are insightful and positive, and able to understand and identify the key selling points of their organization as well.
2. Numbers are worth a thousand words: Your resume needs to demonstrate measurable results. If you work in engineering, can you share the process improvements that you helped to implement? Can you share the cost savings achieved by your team? How much did total sales increase, or lost revenue days decrease, during your time at the company? Even if your past jobs were less easy to measure, there are still ways to quantify and describe the impact that you made on the job. Did you hire or manage staff? If so, how many people? Did you deliver training seminars? How many, and to how many people?
3. Make it “easy on the eyes.” Keep in mind that most people don’t “read” resumes, they “scan” them. Whoever reads your resume is not going to read it line-by-line, word for word. Their eyes are going to wander. They’re going to jump around and look for key words that catch their attention. Don’t forget to leave some “white space” on the page – too much text without any spacing makes it hard for people to concentrate. The eye is naturally drawn to contrasts on the page, between the dark font and the white page around it.
4. Avoid the use of “I.” Resumes should not be written in the first person – instead of writing, “I exceeded my production targets by 5%,” write in third person “telegraphic” style: “Delivered exceptional production results, exceeding quotas by 5%.”
5. Keep it “active.” Don’t use “passive voice” phrases like “responsible for.” Instead of writing, “Responsible for managing a team of quality assurance professionals to ensure that all goals were met,” write: “Managed a high-performing team of quality assurance engineers that exceeded company goals for eight consecutive quarters.”
A detailed, well-formatted resume can be the difference between getting called for an interview or being relegated to the “Reject” pile. Make sure your resume is written in an active voice, full of relevant detail, and formatted for easy scanning and maximum impact.
By: Ben Gran
Ben Gran is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. Each week, he does a free resume review for someone who is looking for a new job – if you’d like Ben Gran to review your resume, free of charge, send him an e-mail at benjamin.gran@gmail.com.
Here are five quick fixes that you can make today to make sure that your resume conveys the best picture of your professional capabilities:
1. Details, details, details: Add a short description for each of the previous employers on your resume – what the company is, what they do, and why it’s important. Is your previous employer a leader in the industry? Have they won any recent awards? Anything you can do to give some context to the person reviewing your resume will be helpful – and it’s also good to sound gracious and complimentary about your past employers. If your resume can deliver a concise and appealing profile of your past employers, that will also show your prospective employers that you are insightful and positive, and able to understand and identify the key selling points of their organization as well.
2. Numbers are worth a thousand words: Your resume needs to demonstrate measurable results. If you work in engineering, can you share the process improvements that you helped to implement? Can you share the cost savings achieved by your team? How much did total sales increase, or lost revenue days decrease, during your time at the company? Even if your past jobs were less easy to measure, there are still ways to quantify and describe the impact that you made on the job. Did you hire or manage staff? If so, how many people? Did you deliver training seminars? How many, and to how many people?
3. Make it “easy on the eyes.” Keep in mind that most people don’t “read” resumes, they “scan” them. Whoever reads your resume is not going to read it line-by-line, word for word. Their eyes are going to wander. They’re going to jump around and look for key words that catch their attention. Don’t forget to leave some “white space” on the page – too much text without any spacing makes it hard for people to concentrate. The eye is naturally drawn to contrasts on the page, between the dark font and the white page around it.
4. Avoid the use of “I.” Resumes should not be written in the first person – instead of writing, “I exceeded my production targets by 5%,” write in third person “telegraphic” style: “Delivered exceptional production results, exceeding quotas by 5%.”
5. Keep it “active.” Don’t use “passive voice” phrases like “responsible for.” Instead of writing, “Responsible for managing a team of quality assurance professionals to ensure that all goals were met,” write: “Managed a high-performing team of quality assurance engineers that exceeded company goals for eight consecutive quarters.”
A detailed, well-formatted resume can be the difference between getting called for an interview or being relegated to the “Reject” pile. Make sure your resume is written in an active voice, full of relevant detail, and formatted for easy scanning and maximum impact.
By: Ben Gran
Ben Gran is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. Each week, he does a free resume review for someone who is looking for a new job – if you’d like Ben Gran to review your resume, free of charge, send him an e-mail at benjamin.gran@gmail.com.
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